National security official warns Americans to leave Ukraine ASAP: 'The risk is now high enough'
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has issued a direct message to the Americans still in Ukraine: get out while you can.
"Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible and in any event in the next 24-48 hours," Sullivan said at Friday's press briefing.
"We obviously cannot predict the future. We don't know exactly what is going to happen, but the risk is now high enough, the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands."
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Sullivan continued by warning those who do decide to stay that they are "assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other oppportunity to leave."
On Thursday, President Biden delivered a similar message during an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News.
"American citizens should leave, should leave now," Biden said, per The Guardian. "We're dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly."
Sullivan also cautioned that the Russian invasion could, in fact, begin during the Beijing Games, "despite a lot of speculation that would only happen after the Olympics," he said, per ABC News. That in mind, the U.S. still cannot say with 100 percent certainty whether Moscow has made up its mind on that front.
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